


In Your Eyes

by BumbleBooty



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-17
Updated: 2019-10-17
Packaged: 2020-10-26 01:35:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20734082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BumbleBooty/pseuds/BumbleBooty
Summary: If you close your eyes while your soulmate's are open, you can see the world through their eyes.If you sleep while they are awake, you dream their day.When you meet for the first time, you see yourself through their eyes.





	In Your Eyes

**Author's Note:**

> Minor cannon tweaks: 
> 
> Maes lives, and he is also the one to go see the boys after they attempt to bring back their mother- not Mustang.

The most cherished things in the world are the visions of a soulmate. From the day someone was born, closing their eyes allows them to see what their soulmate saw- and allowed their soulmate to do the same. The most extreme outliers had ten years of darkness before seeing their soulmate's visions. 

Roy had never seen a vision and lost hope for seeing one as he made his way through his early teens.

As with matters of blood, Roy Mustang was alone and this was a fact he had accepted. He was just as alone as all of Madame Christmas' other girls.

Perhaps that's why he remembered his first glimpse so _vividly_. 

He was sitting in the back booth of Madame Christmas' bar, reviewing for his upcoming math test. He was bored out of his mind, but still sat and studied diligently. His back was straight, his notebook was open beside him, and he had a soda that Jennifer had brought him half-drank and sweating in the heat of the bar. He had been frustrated at regression formulas, seemingly unable to get the equation right- even though he had all the numbers correct. He had just set his pencil down to sigh and pinch the bridge of his nose, taking a deep breath to calm his growing frustration. 

His world froze as he saw gold and white. 

A man with golden eyes, smiling down at him, who kept looking over to someone out of view. As their head turned, he saw an exhausted woman that absolutely _beamed_ with pride. 

His own eyes opened to Madame Christmas before him with worry in her eyes and a handkerchief in her hand. Roy just smiled at her, and she dried his eyes before she pulled him in for a hug. 

The next year, a little brother graced Roy's eyes. 

Four years later, when he was studying for his military entrance exam at an ungodly hour, that man with golden eyes walked out the front door. He didn't return, even when his wife fell ill. He didn't return for the funeral. Roy wished he could be there, but knew he had no place. He did, however, take the day off studying to visit the local graveyard. He hoped the thought would be enough as his soulmate sat blankly in front of the headstone. 

Trisha Elric was a beautiful name.

The next few years dazzled him with how brilliant his soulmate was. They were learning Alchemy at a rate that Roy could never hope to relate to, even going as far as to teach as much as possible to their younger brother.

At 18, his draft order was sitting innocently in the mailbox. He had stared at it for all of twenty seconds before turning and going back inside. It was an early morning for him- he had grown used to waking up at five AM for military purposes- and he had just sat at the same table he spent years studying at and began to write. He couldn't help the moments where he felt silly for doing this- what if they didn't even want to respond? Why had no one thought of doing this before? Each time, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes to the dreams of a running river. When he reopened them, he continued to write. Hours later, when he had explained everything that his soulmate was about to see, he wrote a note on a blank page and waited for his soulmate to awaken. 

It took about forty-five minutes of waiting. He stared at the mostly empty page for several minutes, trying his best not to blink- in case they blinked at the same moment.

It only took about five more minutes for his soulmate to scramble out of bed and lunge for the desk to reply to the rather innocent question hiding the slew of feelings on the bound pages that followed. 

_Can you read this?_

Roy felt his heart leap when his eyes pictured an empty page of a familiar journal. 

_I can! Can you read this?_

Roy couldn't help the tremble in his wrist as he replied. 

_I can._

He didn't need to be beside his soulmate to feel the excitement- the way he shook his brother and bounced in his seat was more than enough. Madame Christmas was smiling from behind the bar- she didn't even need to see his pages to know he was up to something. 

_This is so cool! I can't believe no one has thought of this before!_

_I have had similar thoughts this morning. _

_Why are you always up so early on your days off?_

_I am used to being awake at this hour now- it is the time I wake up naturally._

_That sucks. I like sleeping in!_

_I can tell. _

When he laughed, one of the girls had come up to look over his shoulder. After all, it wasn't very often to see Roy smiling to himself in a corner at nine a.m. She left with a giggle to go get dressed for the day. 

_So, what gave you this idea?_

_I need to talk to you. _

Roy saw his soulmate straighten in his chair. 

_About what?_

_You know how I am a soldier in the military, right?_

_Yeah! It's so cool!_

_It is. However, that does mean I have to do what the military tells me to do. _

_Okay?_

_I'm being sent to fight in the Ishval War. I got my draft orders this morning. _

_That's a bad thing, isn't it?_

_It could be. Either way, I am being sent to do bad things._

_Then why are you going?_

_Because there is a lot more to it than what you can see at this point in time. I want to make this country better and to do that I have to do what the higher-ups say... until I get to be a higher up. _

_Ohhh. Well, If you have to do it you can't get out of it. _

_I do have to do it. I actually spent most of this morning writing out why I am doing what I am about to do so you know what to expect. It is a little long though.  
_

_Can you mail it to me?_

Roy paused and blinked twice. He hesitated three times before managing to write his response. 

_I could. I'm afraid I don't know how to reach you though. _

Roy stood to take an envelope from behind the bar. Madame Christmas ran her hand through his hair as he passed her by. He had to take a deep breath before sitting and picking up his pen once more. 

_What is your name?_

_Edward Elric!_

_My name is Roy Mustang._

It only took another minute or two to fill out the envelope and tuck the longer letter inside. It took a less than three for Edward to secure Roy's permanent address from him, which was now scrawled across the top of the page they had written on. Before Roy stood to report to his CO, they had agreed to try to take an hour each morning before Roy left to write between themselves. 

The war was not kind to either. 

Ed had been in the middle of breakfast when he first saw the alchemy he idolized take a life. A single blink had his world turning a brilliant shade of orange, with flickers of black dancing before his eyes. He froze completely still with his fork in his mouth, scrambled eggs simply resting on a limp tongue. He couldn't bear to swallow when he realized the shadows were people. He barely managed to swallow the eggs as he pushed himself away from the table- away from an almost full plate of breakfast. Granny Pinako did nothing more than watch with a concerned look as Edward went back into the bedroom and close the door.

Edward closed his eyes as he laid down on the bed, squeezing a pillow close as he watched Roy fight. When Al came in to try to get him out of the bed, Granny Pinako just coaxed him out of the room and closed the door. That night, Roy found himself unable to look at his hands without gloves on. When Roy ate his dinner, Ed sat at the desk to write a letter. It quickly became a routine.

Ed would spend his mornings 'beside' Roy, as a silent witness to the tragedy of Ishval and silent support to his soulmate. When Roy ate, Ed would write him a letter. When Roy laid down to go to sleep, Ed drug Al and Winry on adventures with a determination that had both confused. 

Neither truly minded anyway. 

The hour they had agreed on happened rarely, especially when Ed and Al went to train with Izumi. Roy still didn't know how to feel about the two of them being abandoned on an island, especially when the repercussions began to hit. Thankfully, the brutal training didn't last long. 

Unfortunately, Roy could tell Ed was up to something. This nagging feeling never left, even after he returned from Ishval marked as a hero.

He made it a point to walk through the park that morning when Ed was beginning to show signs of awakening. Al's terrified face in his eyes had Roy convinced his safety had Ed crying. 

He got a coffee and people watched for a while, his suitcase beside his ankle. He took his time and drank the entire cup before standing, balancing the calmness of the city with Ed being consoled by Pinako. 

When he entered his room at Madame Christmas' abode, Roy was more than amused by the sheer number of letters he had waiting on him. Ed seemed to be abnormally happy as Roy read them all in one sitting. Al had never looked so confused. 

Three days later, Ed received a letter Roy managed to hide the fact he had written. Granny Pinako almost fell to the floor with laughter. They wrote back and forth for a few months following, trying their best to 'sneak' the contents as much as possible. 

The latest letter had Roy banging on Hughes' door at three in the morning. Ed's pre-emptive goodbye had Hughes claiming an admittedly vague family emergency immediately, with Roy's plea to accompany him cast aside- they both knew he would be useless as a rainy day anyway. It was the longest night of his life, especially when his vision clouded with a brilliant red. Madame Christmas sat beside him that night, her hands coaxing his head to her chest as he refused to open his eyes. 

He began to sob when Hughes' horrified face appeared in his eyes three days later. 

They couldn't write to each other for several months, but Roy was no fool. He could _see_ the determination through Ed's eyes, and didn't hesitate to request the day of his operation off. He spent it in Central Park, hoping that the calming scenery would give some form of distraction during the procedure. 

Within a year, Edward was up and walking. 

He got a letter in the mail less than a week later.

When the cold of October bit the air, Roy awoke after Edward for the first time. It was amusing to be the one to awaken to _Good morning! _scrawled at the top of a page in terrible handwriting, but Ed wouldn't tell him why he was on a train. Roy had shrugged it off, not having the time to interrogate when he had to be at work in two hours. That nervousness grew when Hughes clocked in, then left with a smile. 

That smile was too wide. Roy didn't trust that smile.


End file.
